Swiss Scenarios

From early May into early June, the Swiss Flugwaffe was engaged in several encounters with the German Luftwaffe as the latter consistently violated Swiss airspace, mostly as a result of raids against France. I have been able to cobble together ten scenarios for this period, and while most are rather small, they could make good introductory games for players new to the Check Your 6! system, or for times when only a couple of players can get together for a game.

The ten scenarios are are uploaded and can be found on the Downloads page. While they are mostly vetted, there may be some gaps in the information, so feedback is welcome!

Here are the plane counts. Numbers appearing in red represent aircraft in the Variable Rules.

The Messerschmitt ME 109 DB was the Swiss designation for the Messerschmitt Bf 109E-3. DB stood for Daimler-Benz, which is the engine the E-3 used. If you ever see Messerschmitt ME 109 Jumo, that is the D model, again named for the engine.

99th Fighter Squadron Scenarios

Ohhhh, it was bad, very bad. Spending too much time at the I-94 Enterprises booth during DayCon led to several different purchases. Poor Chris, he probably thought I was being an inconsiderate chap by not combining all my purchases into one transaction, but being under the influence (of others, not alcohol) I kept going back and sniping items. The first trip was a pair of painted Bearcats and the Star and Pyramid scenario book. Then the second drive by was to grab the Over the Channel and Days of Glory scenario books. The final stop yielded six Packard Merlin-powered P-40F models - which for some reason I had no idea I-94 even made - for some fun gaming in either the southwest Pacific or in the Med. 

An olive drab P-40L

In doing a little more research into the uses of the P-40F, I could go a few different ways. While some did see service in the Pacific, seemingly they were more prevalent in North Africa. Some were used by the 99th Fighter Squadron (which would later form part of the 332nd Fighter Group, known later as the Tuskegee Airmen), along with P-40L models, the differences being mostly in armament and a bit of a reduction in some armor on the L model. Plus, color schemes on the 99th's Warhawks varied between the British Dark Earth/Middle Stone/Azure Blue and the American Olive Drab 41/Light Grey 43. So within this squadron I can use a mix of plane colors and two models of P-40s at the same time.

Decals! Oh no, no one makes decals for the 99th - but I have sent off a request to Blue Falcon Hobbies to see if a sheet could be generated. Heck, prior to this week I did not even know of the existence of this firm, which makes a variety of products, most notably a slew of decals for World War II and modern squadrons in various scales, including 1/300. Fingers crossed for a positive response!

Of course the next step was to check AI to see what scenarios could be generated. There are already a few in the Battles Above scenario book, but I always want more. AI stepped up and provided several air to air and air to ground scenarios. Some of course will need to be scaled for playability purposes. There is also a lot of flak, as there probably should be. While one does not want flak to dominate what is mostly an air to air combat game, I do not believe we use nearly enough anti-aircraft as we should. AA can always be handled by the referee/game host if one is being used.

Stats for some of the various P-40 models

One area I am having difficulty in determining is what model of P-40 was being used for any given scenario. Some sources indicate that both the F and L models were being used, with the L being predominant. However, sources indicate only a "handful" or "small number" of F models were present. To handle this, every scenario will utilize a random die roll to determine the model of P-40. 

I will be providing scenarios for the above over the next several weeks. One already makes its appearance on the Downloads page.

Spanish Civil War - Scenarios

Galland in his Heinkel He 51

It's back! The interest in the Spanish Civil War, as yet another obscure gaming project, has made a return. Part of the reason is I started playing, albeit very poorly, War Thunder, and have been using a Heinkel He 51. Yes, long time followers of this blog might have noticed that several years ago I had posted some wonderfully painted Spanish Civil War planes, but I had traded that collection for some Korean War aircraft (and yes, regret is a rearward looking trait) and sold off my research materials. But now, the urge, the itch as it were, has returned and Amazon is winging four books my way, and AI has helped me create a slew of potential scenario outlines featuring the Legion Condor.

Granted, several of the scenarios on the chart are HUGE, and I will need to scale them down significantly for gaming purposes. I will also be creating what I hope to be a very complete and accurate listing of aircraft data for Check Your 6! Most likely I will scale the speeds as SCW aircraft, for the most part, are slow and slow aircraft have a tendency to accumulate in about a one foot square of gaming surface.

For now, I have created one scenario featuring Adolf Galland, entitled Galland's Carpet, found on the Downloads page.